The eclipse - caused when the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun - cast its 150-kilometre-wide shadow starting at dawn in Australia's Northern Territory and then across the northeast tip of the country before swooping east across the South Pacific.

The sun was at its most obscured in Christchurch at 10.34am. Many Cantabrians stopped what they were doing to watch the event.

University of Canterbury solar expert Orlon Petterson said the eclipse would finish at 11.45am.

"There will be 68 per cent coverage of the Sun in Canterbury."

When the eclipse was at its peak, the light would be noticeably darker over the city, he said.

"The light will get dimmer and it will start to look like a cloudy day. You should be able to notice it from inside."

Petterson said it was best not to look directly at the Sun to view the eclipse.

"It's obviously not good to look at the Sun unaided, even during an eclipse. Ideally, you should have actual solar field material to view it through, or they suggest a welding mask is the second best,'' he said.

"The best recommendation for most people is to create a very basic pin-hole camera. Just get a bit of card, cut a hole in it and cover the hole with tinfoil and then you can view the eclipse through it [when it projects the image on to] a wall or the ground."

Petterson said he had the flu but would still be "sneaking peeks" of the eclipse throughout the morning.